


After All This Time:  A Comedy Waltz

by LoveThemFiercely



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dancing, F/F, Inspired by Music, Sad and Sweet, dive bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 11:38:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16701817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveThemFiercely/pseuds/LoveThemFiercely
Summary: A moment just for them; maybe the last of moments like these.





	After All This Time:  A Comedy Waltz

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was inspired by this song:
> 
> Comedy Waltz, by Fairground Attraction
> 
> I want to hear a comedy waltz tonight  
> A couple of beers and a comedy waltz tonight  
> Small minded people at the place where I work  
> There's small minded people all over the world
> 
> So I want to hear a comedy waltz tonight  
> Tell me a joke that brings tears to my eyes  
> Please tell me a joke so that I can laugh till I cry
> 
> I've heard the news and it's always the same  
> Never any laughs, just trouble again  
> So tell me a joke that brings tears to my eyes
> 
> There's something I can't quite put my finger on  
> About a clockwork monkey beating a drum  
> But any time I have seen such a thing  
> There's something inside of me knows what it means  
> I want to learn how to dance, I want to spin...

She couldn’t remember the name of the bar.  It was a dive bar like thousands, hundreds of thousands, on out-of-the-way planets at the back of beyond.  For that matter, Leia couldn’t, at this exact second, recall the name of the planet either. It had been that kind of week.  All bad news, really, disheartening and bleak; and some of it had been about him, and his latest exploits. But this wasn’t the time to think about that.  This time was just for them; a couple of beers and some time for themselves at the far end of the galaxy, in a nameless establishment Leia couldn’t have chosen from a photo array if her life depended on it.

 

The beautiful woman at the two-top table in the back, though, was easy to pick out of the crowd.   No matter where she was, Amilyn Holdo shone, like a single long-stemmed bloom in a field of grass. Today, her hair was the same soft shade as the blueblossoms on Hosnian Prime.  Leia wondered if the choice was deliberate; that was the color it had been five years ago or so, the first time they’d danced together. That same night Amilyn had whispered in her ear that Leia didn’t have to be alone; and so she hadn’t been.

 

That same woman rose, tall and elegant, from her seat, her face full of fondness, and still, five years later, a little heat.  “Care for a dance, Senator?” One well-groomed eyebrow rose as she held out her hand. Amilyn knew perfectly well Leia’s Senate days were over; but that’s what she’d been when they met.

 

She took it; of course she did.  “I’d be delighted to partner with you, my dear.”

 

That got her an impish grin.  “Scandalous. What would your husband think?”

 

Leia frowned.  “Ami, you know perfectly well…”  

 

Her laugh rang out like a peal of bells.  “Yes, I know, you waited until it was all official and legal.  You were entirely and in every way correct; which would come as a shock to anyone who knew what a firecracker you always were on the Senate floor.” 

 

She cupped Leia’s cheek with her hand as they moved among the tables.  It wasn’t in step with the music, if you could call it that; from the first, they’d done things at their own pace, in their own way. There were still some among their allies who would think this inappropriate; not because of Amilyn, no.  They were the same ones who thought she should be known as General Solo, who couldn’t accept that the storybook romance of the Rebellion might have naturally come to an end. Sometimes it was hard to believe; not everything that had tied them together, she and Han, was easily broken.

 

Ami tapped her on the nose.  “I know what you’re thinking.  You don’t have to worry, you know; no one will point and gasp at the idea that you might spend time with someone else.  You’ve been apart for a while now; even if it’s obvious he still loves you. And you him, for that matter; no, it’s all right, there are many different kinds of love,” she bent down to demonstrate; the heat was at the forefront now, as her mouth on Leia’s made it plain what she meant, “hmmmm, and I don’t begrudge any of them.  This one, just now, is mine.”

 

She straightened, humming to some internal tune; a waltz, Leia thought, definitely not whatever awful thing was playing in here.  “I was gone on you the first moment I heard you speak, you know, there on Coruscant; all passion and fire, but somehow cool and composed at the same time.  I never did work out how you did that, but it shook me all the way to my toes.” 

 

Leia shook her head, smiling.  “You were a child in those days; I’m sure it was one in any number of adolescent crushes.”  She thought affectionately of the young Holdo, all knees and elbows, so desperate to show herself as different than her roots, so determined to rebel; and yet so full of longing and love when she spoke of the place where she’d been born.  

 

Amilyn’s expression was tender, and a little sad, as she leaned to place a gentle kiss on Leia’s cheek.  “Leia Organa, there was never anybody for me, really, but you. Don’t you know that, even after all this time?”  Her smile was sweet with a touch of bitter; like strong caf well-sugared.

 

She hadn’t known; even after all this time.  Leia wasn’t sure how she felt about that.  No one else; surely there had been someone.  Shouldn’t there have been?

 

Ami chuckled at the look on her face.  “No, I didn’t spend my years alone, pining for you; well, not alone, anyway.  There were a few, here and there; many of them wonderful, some of them I loved, in one way or another.  But here…” she placed Leia’s hand over her heart…”it was always you.” She whirled them around, quickly, until they were both breathless, giggling like the girl she’d been.  “I thought I ought to tell you, I’m not sure why; except I have a feeling we might not get to do this as many more times as we’d like. I love you.”

 

Leia tilted her head, better to look into Amilyn’s eyes.  “I didn’t know. I love you too.” This time she took the lead, spinning them both dizzily in the small space, laughing until they cried; until they forgot everything but the heartbeats that set their rhythm.  Two pulses like one, here at the end of the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine there were those among The Resistance and its allies, when it began, that might find it hard to fathom that the Rebellion's great love story could be over; and a time when someone as public as Leia might want something to be just hers. Well, hers and one other person's. I can easily imagine young Holdo, part of the Apprentice Legislature, crushing HARD on the legendary, unattainable Leia Organa-Solo; only to find that this was a longing that stayed with her through all the years. And it wouldn't surprise me at all, to imagine that Amilyn Holdo, rebel, Vice Admiral, astrologer, true believer in the Force, would have a feeling she couldn't explain.


End file.
